The alliance between President Trump and Elon Musk went up in flames Thursday, days after the world’s richest man left the administration and tried to wield his influence to kill a massive budget bill that is central to enacting the president’s top legislative priorities.
Their spat played out in public and marked another remarkable turn for Musk, who spent tens of millions on Mr. Trump’s reelection campaign and was given the reins to slash the size of the federal government.
Here’s a look back at how Mr. Trump and Musk got here:
Trump “not the right guy,” Musk says in 2016
The Tesla CEO praised Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s economic and environmental policies as “the right ones” in an interview with CNBC before the 2016 election.
“I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy,” Musk said of Mr. Trump at the time. “He doesn’t seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States.”
“I don’t think this is the finest moment in our democracy,” Musk added.
Musk joins — and quits — Trump administration roles
Shortly after Mr. Trump’s first term began, Musk joined a handful of White House advisory boards, including Mr. Trump’s “manufacturing jobs council.”
But Musk left those roles just months later, citing Mr. Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords.
“Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world,” Musk tweeted in June 2017.
Musk continued to have a close relationship with the federal government, however, as his rocket company SpaceX has billions in contracts with NASA and other agencies.
Mr. Trump praised Musk at a 2020 SpaceX launch in Florida, saying at one point: “I speak to him all the time. Great guy. He’s one of our great brains. We like great brains. And Elon has done a fantastic job.”
Musk sours on Democrats in 2022 — but still feuds with Trump
In May 2022, Musk said he was ending his support for Democrats because “they have become the party of division & hate.”
“So I can no longer support them and will vote Republican,” Musk tweeted, later adding that he voted for Clinton in 2016 and former President Joe Biden in 2020.
But just two months later, Musk suggested he didn’t support Mr. Trump launching another run for the White House amid a public spat with the then-former president over the course of several days in July 2022. Mr. Trump called the Tesla CEO a “b—s— artist” at a rally and said his companies would be “worthless” without federal backing, while Musk tweeted Mr. Trump should “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”
Later in 2022, Musk purchased Twitter, now known as X, and quickly reinstated Mr. Trump’s account, which had been suspended since the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The reinstatement came four days after Mr. Trump announced his third run for the presidency after losing to Biden.
In the Republican presidential primary, Musk initially threw his support behind one of Mr. Trump’s rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. In May 2023, the billionaire and the Floridian appeared together on a glitchy Twitter livestream to launch DeSantis’ campaign.
Musk endorses Trump in 2024, wields influence
The tech billionaire formally endorsed Mr. Trump on July 13, 2024, moments after Mr. Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote alongside video of the bloodied presidential candidate raising his fist in the air as he was surrounded by Secret Service agents.
Musk joined Mr. Trump on the campaign trail and spent roughly $277 million to help elect him and other Republican candidates, mostly through a Musk-backed super PAC called America PAC, campaign finance records show.
Mr. Trump shouted Musk out during his election night victory speech: “A star is born,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s an amazing guy.”
Before Mr. Trump was inaugurated for a second term, Musk used his political influence in December 2024 to whip up outrage against a bipartisan spending bill and torpedo it days before a potential government shutdown.
Musk joins Trump administration, spearheading DOGE
Mr. Trump appointed Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which was tasked with cutting federal government spending, but fell far short of Musk’s $1 trillion goal.
Musk quickly became a member of Mr. Trump’s inner circle, participating in Cabinet meetings and traveling on Air Force One with his young son. Less than a month into his government service, Musk professed on X: “I love @realDonaldTrump as much as a straight man can love another man.”
DOGE quickly gained vast influence within the Trump administration, slashing government staff and nearly dismantling some federal agencies.
Musk and Mr. Trump appeared together in the Oval Office in February — with Musk’s son in tow — and jointly answered questions from the press.
Mr. Trump stood by Musk as some of his efforts drew backlash. In late February, a DOGE-backed email telling federal employees to report what they had accomplished in the preceding week sparked confusion in some agencies. During a Cabinet meeting days later, Mr. Trump called Musk “tremendously successful” and said people were “thrilled” with his performance — and said federal workers who haven’t responded to the emails are “on the bubble.”
When Tesla faced protests from Trump opponents, the president boosted Musk, climbing into a Tesla on the White House South Lawn in March and calling the car “beautiful.” Days prior, Mr. Trump said on Truth Social he would “buy a brand new Tesla” as a show of support for Musk, who the president said was “doing a FANTASTIC JOB.”
Musk clashed with White House trade adviser Peter Navarro in April over Mr. Trump’s tariff strategy. Musk called Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks” after Navarro said Tesla relies on “cheap foreign parts.” Mr. Trump’s White House didn’t take sides: “Boys will be boys,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
In a late April Cabinet meeting, Mr. Trump praised and thanked Musk — but suggested his time in government could end soon.
“You’re invited to stay as long as you want. At some point, he wants to get back home to his cars,” Mr. Trump said, as he and his Cabinet led a round of applause for the billionaire.
Musk leaves administration and ramps up criticism
Days before wrapping up his work for the federal government, Musk began criticizing a massive piece of legislation aimed at advancing Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda. Musk told “CBS News Sunday Morning” he was “disappointed” in the price tag of the package, which would extend Mr. Trump’s signature 2017 tax cuts, boost border security spending, impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients and roll back clean energy tax credits.
Musk left his position in the administration on May 30 after reaching the maximum number of days he could serve as a special government employee. Musk, who had a black eye, stood next to Mr. Trump in the Oval Office as the president praised the billionaire’s government work and called him “one of the greatest business leaders and innovators the world has ever produced.”
“Elon’s really not leaving. He’s going to be back and forth, I think, I have a feeling,” Mr. Trump said. Musk said he would continue to serve as a “friend and adviser” to the president.
Musk-Trump spat bursts wide open
In the following days, Musk escalated his criticism of the legislation Mr. Trump has dubbed a “big, beautiful bill,” calling it a “disgusting abomination” in a lengthy early June tirade on his social media platform. The insults continued through the week, reaching a climax on June 5 with Mr. Trump threatening to cancel Musk’s lucrative government contracts and Musk claiming that Mr. Trump could not have won the presidency without him.
Musk said he would shut down a SpaceX program that NASA relies on to transport astronauts — before later backtracking — and seemed to endorse an X post calling for Mr. Trump to be impeached. Musk also warned Republican lawmakers: “Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years.”
During the back-and-forth, Mr. Trump claimed that he asked Musk to leave his administration and upset him with a provision in the budget bill that would end tax credits for electric vehicles.
“Elon was ‘wearing thin,’ I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” the president wrote.
Musk then alleged that Mr. Trump’s name appeared in the files related to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 while facing charges of sex trafficking.
“@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public,” Musk wrote. “Have a nice day, DJT!”
In response to the spat, Leavitt called it an “unfortunate episode from Elon.”
